In this post, discover how man has turned Sabbath Day into Sunday worship. Take a look at history and see how the Sabbath was gradually replaced by Sunday worship.
The Sabbath Day, as we have discussed, is observed from the sunset of Friday to the sunset of Saturday.
Any honest and thinking Bible scholars will tell you that the official Sabbath Day in the Bible is Saturday and not Sunday.
From the Old Testament to the New Testament, from Genesis to the Revelation, from Adam to the last person born today, you will NEVER read any direct command and even any indication that the Sabbath has already been done away with.
Aside from that, you will NEVER read in the Bible that the sanctity of the Sabbath has been transferred to Sunday!
To make things even clearer, the Bible explicitly says that Yahshua (Jesus Christ), His Disciples, and the early Christian churches kept the seventh-day Sabbath.
So, we must ask the question:
How did modern Christians end up keeping Sunday instead of Saturday?
How did the Sabbath Day become Sunday?
Who made the change?
Most importantly, is the change authorized in the Bible?
Let us answer these questions right now.
The gradual change of Sabbath to Sunday
Historians would agree that Christians in the first century kept Saturday as the Sabbath. However, this has gradually changed at the turn of the second century.
After the death of the original apostles and their contemporaries, the job of getting rid of God’s laws has become easier.
There are a lot of people who rose and started to attack various fundamental doctrines of God’s true Church. Among these men were Justin Martyr, Ignatius, and Clement of Alexandria.
When Emperor Hadrian reigned beginning in 117 A.D., he began to persecute the Jewish people. He had prohibited any practice related to Judaism and that includes the seventh-day Sabbath.
As a result, faithful Christians were forced to keep the Sabbath in secret and gather together in catacombs and hidden places.
Slowly, but surely, Sabbath-keepers were driven into hiding while Sunday-keepers were out in the open.
During the reign of Emperor Hadrian, worshipping on the first day of the week became the norm.
Constantine the Great, the pagan Christian
The Sunday-worship had further become stronger during the time of Constantine the Great.
Constantine was a well-known worshipper of the sun god Sol Invictus.
According to stories, he converted to Christianity after winning his battle against the Roman Emperor Maxentius in A.D. 312. Before the battle, it was said that he saw a vision of a fiery cross in the sky, which encouraged him and became victorious.
After almost a decade, he made a proclamation that the day of worship should be done on Sunday and not Saturday.
It was at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 that Emperor Constantine made Sunday the official day of worship for the entirety of the Roman Empire.
He chose Sunday, not because he wants to follow God, but because it was the day Sol Invictus was being worshipped!
His proclamation was as follows:
“On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time [A.D. 321]” (Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3).
With this proclamation, Constantine became a master of syncretism — the practice of combining pagan worship with true Christian worship.
Since then, syncretism has become a tool for the Roman Catholic Church to conquer pagans and gentiles and put them under control with the use of religious deception.
Sadly, even after the Great Reformation, Christians who left the Roman Catholic Church were never able to revert back to the Biblical Sabbath. Instead, they followed in the footsteps of their mother church.
Taking the authority of God
It is no secret that the Roman Catholic Church played a huge role in turning the Sabbath into Saturday.
In fact, instead of being ashamed of it, they are proud of changing the Sabbath day and changing other laws of God.
Why did they do this?
One simple answer:
They believe that they have the authority of God.
They presumptuously claim that they are making decisions on behalf of the Almighty!
It is the height of pride and rebellion against the Great and Living God!
Notice what Pope Leo XIII wrote in a letter in 1894:
“We [referring to the popes] hold upon this Earth the place of God Almighty.”
The same message is being made in an 1895 Catholic newspaper called The Catholic National:
“The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ himself hidden under the veil of flesh.”
If that is not enough, read what the Saint Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel (May 21, 1995) said:
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. ‘The Day of the Lord’ (dies domini) was chosen, NOT from any direction noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power . . . People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically . . . keep Saturday holy” (emphasis added).
With this, we are now beginning to see the history of the Sabbath controversy. Because of the deceitful thinking that the “church” can override the authority of God, a lot of religious leaders begin to mix Christianity with paganism.
Worshiping the sun god
We have already mentioned earlier that it was Constantine who made it official to make Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire.
While it is true that Constantine’s religious edicts have lessened Christian persecution, he made sun worship even more popular not just among the pagans, but in the Christians as well.
A lot of Catholics would claim that Constantine was the first “Christian” Roman Emperor. However, a deeper look at his life after his “conversion” tells you otherwise.
Read what historian Paul Johnson wrote in his book, A History of Christianity, 1976, pp. 67-68:
“Constantine was almost certainly a Mithraic, and his triumphal arch, built after his ‘conversion’, testifies to the Sun-god, or ‘unconquered sun’. … Constantine NEVER abandoned sun-worship and kept the sun on his coins. He made Sunday into a day of rest, closing the law courts and forbidding all work except agricultural labour.”
Mithraism is the official religion of the Roman Empire before Constantine declared Christianity to be so. The official day of worship for Mithraism was Sunday.
So, it is not difficult to see how we got the word “Sunday” as it is the day of the sun. It is not even surprising to see, when Constantine adopted Christianity, that it was difficult for him to completely abandon Mithraism.
As a compromise, instead of keeping the correct day of worship, he chose Sunday as a relic of his past religion.
Anti-Jewish sentiments intensified
Throughout the history of man, among the most hated ethnic groups are the Hebrews.
In the Bible, we have seen a lot of times when the Hebrews were nearly exterminated. From the time of Hebrew babies being killed in Egypt to the time of the Holocaust in World War II. Not to mention the almost successful extermination of the Jews mentioned in the book of Esther.
So, it is not a great surprise to see how anti-semitism also played a role in erasing the history of the Sabbath in the true Church.
Even in the New Testament, we have seen deeply-rooted strife among the Jewish and Gentile Christians. The great divide even intensified once all the original Apostles passed away.
Thus, one of the reasons that the Sabbath was abolished was to get rid of any trace of the Jews in the religion of Christianity.
In A.D. 365, the Council of Laodicea made a decision such as the following:
“Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day, and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ” (Canon XXIX).
For the religious leaders, keeping the Sabbath on the right day is considered “judaizing.” It means that if you keep the Sabbath, you are trying to transform Christianity into Judaism. For the religious leaders, this is evil and should be stopped.
Even Constantine the Great has been reported to say these words at the Council of Nicaea:
“It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast [Passover] we should follow the practice of the Jews … . Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd.”
For Constantine, the first “Christian” Roman Emperor, it is considered unworthy to have anything to do with the Jews.
As a result, as much as possible, the Christianity that Constantine upheld didn’t want to have anything that is considered Jewish.
Thus, they chose another day of worship and rest. Since Constantine has already been worshiping on Sunday, then it was only natural for him to choose Sunday as the new Sabbath day.
Changed by man, not by God
After reading all the information above, we can now answer some fundamental questions.
Question: who changed the seventh-day Sabbath to Sunday?
Answer: man.
Question: in whose authority do the religious leaders change the Sabbath to Sunday?
Answer: man.
Question: Is Sunday worship supported by the Bible?
Answer: no.
Question: Can we see any command in the Bible that the sanctity of the Sabbath was transferred on Sunday?
Answer: no.
Who will you follow?
Now that you know the origin of Sunday worship and how it replaced the God-ordained Sabbath, you should have a better understanding of what you should do as a true follower of the Messiah.
God said, “Remember the Sabbath.”
Man said, “Remember Sunday.”
God said, “I am the Lawgiver.”
Man said, “I am the lawgiver.”
Let every man be a liar and God be true!
Who will you follow?
Will you follow the commandments and traditions of men?
Or will you follow Yahweh, the supreme Ruler of this vast universe and the only Authority we should obey?
You decide.
But I pray and hope you make the right decision!